


Song of Ymir

by spockside



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Mother-Son Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-16
Updated: 2012-04-16
Packaged: 2017-11-03 19:22:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/384971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spockside/pseuds/spockside
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frigga sings a song to her son.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Song of Ymir

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on my scanty knowledge of Norse mythology, as gleaned from Wikipedia and the pages of various books on folklore. Pardon any glaring errors.

Frigga sits beside a child's bed, sewing, singing a soft song. The child is not asleep, but ill, and he turns his aching head toward his mother.

"Mother," he whispers.

"Loki," she says instantly, laying her needlework in her lap and her hand on his pale forehead.

"I would have gone with them."

"I know, love. They know it as well. It is not your heart that failed you, but this vile sickness."

"I've never been out with the boar hunters. Thor's been twice now."

Frigga looks down at her smaller son, all black hair and lizard-green eyes, and sees not a mighty hunter, but a scholar. A thirst for knowledge, for the "why" and not the "how", for words rather than weaponry.

"There's more to life than hunting beasts," she tells him, not for the last time. "And Sif has promised to bring you pears from the orchard when she returns with them."

Mention of Sif, his playmate, almost a sister, makes him smile, however faintly, but still he frets.

"Why didn't the healing stone work, Mother?"

Frigga smooths his hair back and replies, "We don't know, darling," although she could certainly venture an excellent guess. "But you are becoming stronger, every hour, and your pain grows less, doesn't it?"

Loki nods slightly. His mother smiles at him reassuringly, tidies his covers and gives him a little wine, then settles back to her vigil as his eyelids droop.

"Sing me a song, Mother, please?"

Frigga hesitates only briefly before choosing the song, one rarely heard in Asgard, a low, repetitive tune perfect for luring her son to sleep. It seems to have the opposite effect, however.

"What song is that?"

"It's very old, Loki, about the very beginnings of the cosmos."

"Who was Ymir, Mother?"

"The father of the jötnar, they say. His children were spawned from his armpits and his feet, and Bergelmir was his grandson."

"How do you know a song about frost giants, Mother?" Loki yawns, thus missing the expression that flits across his mother's face.

"I know many things, Loki Odinsson," she tells him firmly. "Not all of which I need explain to you. Now, go to sleep, young man."

"Will you keep singing the song?"

"Yes, I will, I promise."

She sits and sings, does not lift her needlework, and watches her son fall asleep.


End file.
